Pizzas! Cocktails! Grills! The shouty tangerine flags flying along the highway outside Bike & Boot tell their own story. Despite its ethos as a base camp for hikers and cyclists, here is a hotel offering something deliberately different from the creaking old inns and cottage B&Bs that tend to define the Peak District. An angular three-storey newbuild set in the bucolic Hope Valley, it’s a long-awaited sister to the first Bike & Boot, which opened on Scarborough seafront in 2020, and imports the same buzzy, youthful vibe. The lobby has OS-map wallpaper and a bike-helmet chandelier, check-in is wi-fi-enabled, and the pulse of the place is Bareca, an open-plan brasserie bookended by glass, which serves up steaks and sundaes in the glow of its long, colourful bar.
Overall score 9/10
Main photo: Bike & Boot in Hope Valley
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Rooms and suites
Score 8/10
There’s a whiff of the urban cell-hotel about Bike & Boot’s 60 lookalike rooms, with their pops of bright orange and poster-print art — the window blinds are 1940s railway ads, the lighting is oversized Anglepoise or Edison bulb. But even the standard ones feel roomy, and they get important things right: acres of crisp white linen, large power showers, a milk bottle in the minibar. There’s an ice machine out on the landing too, for your morning G&T. And while truckle beds are laid on for the tots, terriers will feel even more welcome — dog-friendliness is central to Bike & Boot, with squeaky toys as standard and a vase of chews at reception. Quibbles? Unlike downstairs in the restaurant, bedroom windows are on the small side, maybe to limit the views of the A6187, thundering by out front.
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Food and drink
Score 8/10
With its open kitchen, splashy mural and crate-based light installation, the Bareca (bar, restaurant, café — get it?) is an exuberant place to spend time. Breakfast here is entirely self-served — boil-your-own eggs, build-your-own pancakes — the dress code is Lycra and fleece, and the presence of a dog under almost every table adds to the playful mood. Lunch and dinner are from the same menu, running a familiar gamut from surfy staples such as prawns and paella to burgers and pasta. A bit of everything, essentially, delivered by jolly young waiting staff in hardware-store aprons. Drinks are craft-in-a-can and bubbly-in-a-bucket rather than frothing cask ale; the cocktail bar is eye-catching, with Bakewell pudding punch adding a Peakland twist. And the evening crowd includes plenty of locals, dropping by to find out what the fuss is about.
What else is there?
Score 7/10
On the back patio stands another Bike & Boot trademark — the Wadobi (walk, dog, bike — get it?). This is a bicycle shed/drying room/“professional grooming station”, complete with an armoury of hairdryers for your hound and a Swiss army-style bike-maintenance rig, all spanners and pumps. The hotel has teamed up with the Peaks-based outfit True North to offer electric bike hire direct from its car park, guided rides and advice on the best trails (though you may need to book ahead). Back indoors you’ll find a dapper guest lounge offering free push-button coffee and afternoon cake, plus a miniature movie room seating 12, with proper flip-up cinema seats and three shows daily: at 3pm, 6pm and 9pm.
Where is it?
Score 7/10
A 20-minute drive west from Sheffield, the hotel puts you in prime position to tick off a highlights reel of the national park. Bedrooms come with a Quick & Dirty Guide to the Peak District, including tips on the best farm shops, fish and chips and artisan ices. But scenic sorties are legion: nearby Hathersage is home to Little John and Jane Eyre, and your gateway to Stanage Edge, the best of the Peak’s panoramic gritstone escarpments. It has a brilliant heated lido too. The intriguing plague village of Eyam is a boil’s burst away, or head west to the crystal-crusted caves of Castleton and visit troglodyte villages and underground lakes.
Price room-only doubles from £99
Restaurant mains from £12
Family-friendly Y
Dog-friendly Y
Accessible Y
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